U.S. Navy looks to blimps as anti-terror tool

MANASSAS, Va. The military is looking to something old as a new
weapon in the war on terrorism: blimps.

The blimps wouldn’t be like those that hover over football stadiums
and concerts. These would be equipped with cutting-edge sensors and
high-resolution cameras that could scour the landscape or oceans.

Think of it as a 200-foot-long eye in the sky.

The Office of Naval Research is working with Honolulu-based Science &
Technology International to develop the idea.

From thousands of feet up, STI’s advanced o…

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Who’s got orders to ZP-1???
This might give the VP boys a run for their money. 😉

Tiger 2011-12-19 17:22:58

Well It would keep Lakehurst in the lighter than air biz……

Ron 2011-12-19 19:39:31

It seems like not that long ago, the DOD was looking to blimps as a weapon
in the war on drugs. Whatever happened to that idea? ISTR something about
a blimp tethered at Ft. Huachuca, AZ designed to peer over the Mexican
border and….???… see drugs??? …or something.

R

Leanne 2011-12-23 00:15:12

The last time we were in Key West there was a tethered blimp one or two keys up
from there that was supposed to be looking towards the south for druggies…

Doug \woody\ a 2011-12-23 00:15:15

I can think of three off the top of my head…

There are two on the U.S. southern border with Mexico that are high up. In
fact, on EGPWS, they register as obstacles.

There is another (as the previous poster mentioned) in Key West which they
reel in and out occasionally.